The first reason why I chose to go to the Seattle Symphony production on February 17th, 1998 was that the resources of the featured artists and the conductor Maximiano Valdes were quite plentiful. It was quite easy to find information on the conductor using the library and even the Internet. In fact, Valdes current place of employment, that being the music director of Buffalo Philharmonic has a detailed web page and history of Valdes, including his place of birth and significant accomplishments up to present. With all this information available, the writing of this paper would be significantly easier. Upon arriving at the production, there was an announcement that Maximiano Valdes would in fact not be conducting the Seattle Symphony that night, but a replacement by the name of Jorge Mester would. The announcement was surprising, but the biggest shock was after the concert when the information sought on Mr. Mester was very limited. The information that could be found on Mr. Mester was that the man was quite accomplished, and winner of various awards. Some of the major accomplishments were that of being the current Artistic Director of the National Orchestral Association’s New Music Project and winner of the prestigious Naumberg Prize. The Seattle Symphony production that I attended February 17th lasted approximately just over a two hours. It started promptly at 7:30 and had a brief 20-minute intermission at 8:30. Not including the intermission, the concert could primarily be divided into three parts. Each of the three parts was different in composer, texture, volume, and instruments used. Although all the parts of the performance where very well done, the second was just exceptional, as it featured the talent of guest cellist, Antonio Meneses.The first part of the performance started promptly at 7:30 with the orchestra led in followed by the conductor. As stated above, an announcement was then made at this time that ...
